Agents get nostalgic over Thomas Cook demise
With the sad demise of Thomas Cook this week, nostalgic travel agents have been thinking back to the ‘good old days’. Here are some of their memories, shared on the Facebook forum Travel Gossip.
– When the Intasun brochure featured a lady in a bikini with a darker tan every season. When my girls used to sticker the brochures in the school holidays. When customers all paid in cash or cheque. When we spent hours finding offers and writing window cards every day.
– When Thomas Cook Staff would phone up and I would put the booking in pencil then when cheque came in I would rub out and put it in ink.
– When I went on the inaugural flight to the Bahamas with JMC for three days and we were all given lime green blankets off the plane as souvenirs!
– Writing out window cards, the stickers on the brochures, and re-stocking the brochure room, all having our set desks, and the 17:25 warning the systems shut down.
– Going down to see Intasun and being asked whether we thought adding Turkey would be a good idea. Strange that it turned out to be probably Thomas Cooks most successful destination!
– When you could get a £69 Sunmed holiday to somewhere in Greece on an horrendous night flight
– The queues on Saturdays, so many conferences, sales meetings, company launches, incentives, regional dos.
* Do you have fond memories of the ‘goold old days’? Share them with us by clicking on Post a Comment below
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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